May named UK Australian of the Year

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A week of Australia Day celebrations in Britain opened tonight
when one of the world's leading scientists, Sir Robert May, was
named winner of the inaugural Australian in the UK award.

Introduced by the Australia Day Foundation in the UK this year,
the award aims to recognise the achievements and contributions of
the thousands of expats living in Britain.

May, 69, received the award at a $433 a head dinner at Australia
House in central London, where British broadcaster Alan Whicker was
named Honorary Australian in the UK.

Knighted in 1996 and made a lord in 2001, Lord May of Oxford
heads Britain's peak scientific body as president of the Royal
Society and the award marks a lifetime of prizes, honours and
scientific achievement.

Initially a theoretical physicist, May became a leading figure
in the world of mathematics, biology and zoology.

He has won awards for pioneering ecological research while his
latest project studied the diversity and abundance of plant and
animal species and the threats of extinction.

One of the few Australians with the right to sit in the House of
Lords, May was educated at Sydney University and studied and taught
at Harvard and Princeton universities in the United States before
taking up a position in 1988 in Oxford where he is professor of
zoology.

He was the chief scientific advisor to the British government
and head of its Office of Science and Technology from 1995 to 2000
when he was appointed president of the Royal Society, one of the
most esteemed positions in the scientific world.

The 245-year-old Royal Society is the world's oldest scientific
academy and Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Joseph
Banks are among Lord May's predecessors as president.

Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein are in its list of eminent
former fellows.

May received an Australian centenary medal in 2003 and has
received scientific awards from the US, Italy and Sweden.

The Young Australian of the Year in the UK will be named at
another celebratory dinner in London on Australia Day on
Wednesday.

The week's festivities include the Australialife food, wine and
travel festival at Lord's cricket ground and a season of Australian
film at the October Gallery in Bloomsbury.

On Wednesday, Minister for Small Business and Tourism Fran
Bailey opens a photographic exhibition - Rankin's Australia, A
Different Light - at the Proud Galleries in London.

Next week, Australia's best winemakers promote their wares at
the Australia Day wine tastings at London's Guildhall.